EDUCATION.

Schooling was available at
Fulbourn from the 1570s. Between 1600 and
1625 the curate usually also acted as schoolmaster, although a B.A. was also teaching in
the 1610s. (fn. 1) The master reported in 1669 was
a dissenter; another in 1685 was unlicensed. (fn. 2)
Local education was endowed by Mrs. Elizabeth
March, of the Farmer family. By her will of 1722
she gave land in Oakington, worth £70 by 1780,
to support schools for teaching poor children,
free of charge, to read English in five
Cambridgeshire parishes including Fulbourn. (fn. 3)
In 1728 a master was teaching 24 children in
that charity school, held by 1747 in St. Vigor's
vestry. (fn. 4) Successive masters, a father and son
until 1762, and their successor, 1762-1808, (fn. 5)
received £10 out of the endowment until 1800,
£20 by 1837, and £38 by 1860. (fn. 6) In 1807 when
that endowed master, an Anglican chosen by the
rector and parish officers, taught only reading,
another taught writing; there were also three
dame schools. (fn. 7)

March's school had 30 pupils in 1818, when
another day school had 45, two thirds male; six
dame schools had c. 75, and two evening ones
another 41, although most boys had to go to
work early. (fn. 8) In 1833, when the endowed school,
apparently under an unsatisfactory drunken
master, had only 18 pupils, villagers were paying
for teaching in seven dame schools and one evening one with 144 children between them. (fn. 9) The
parish clerk kept March's school, perhaps
mostly for boys, from 1834 to the late 1860s,
charging c. 1837 for teaching writing and arithmetic. By 1851 he was hiring a schoolroom. (fn. 10)
About 1847 c. 110 others, mostly infant girls,
still attended five dame schools. (fn. 11) In 1851 c. 190
children were receiving some schooling. (fn. 12) One
dame school survived into the early 1880s. (fn. 13) A
private day school, whose master in 1859 gave
evening classes for older boys, (fn. 14) was probably
that kept by the Paynes at Chafy's Farm c.
1850-80. (fn. 15)

The new All Saints curate started evening
classes for 80 young men by 1854, (fn. 16) when the
existing endowed school had 60 pupils under its
'efficient' master. (fn. 17) The next vicar had a Church
school, including one large mixed schoolroom,
erected in 1858 on a site west of Wright's, later
School, Lane, given by the squire. It was built
of grey brick trimmed in red to a slightly Gothic
design resembling the contemporary almshouses. The cost, £625, was mostly met by subscription. Opened in 1859, (fn. 18) it soon had c. 50
pupils paying schoolpence, out of 160 schoolchildren in the village, mostly girls; they were
taught by an uncertificated mistress. (fn. 19) Another
schoolroom for c. 45 boys was added, with a
house to the north for the teacher, in 1871-2,
possibly because the endowed school had
recently ceased; March's benefaction, then
worth £34, met half the running costs. (fn. 20)

By 1873 the clergy were finding it hard to
maintain that school, then taking 170 pupils. A
British day school connected with the chapel,
which had once taught up to 150, had lately
closed for lack of money. The ratepayers
demanded a school board, (fn. 21) established in 1879.
In 1880 it built a new schoolroom for 60-80
boys under a certificated master, formally succeeding March's school. It was enlarged in 1893
to hold 200 pupils. (fn. 22) Under a compromise
reached in 1883 the 1871 church school building
was transferred to the board for teaching the
older girls, while that of 1858-9 was retained for
a church infant school, which again proved
difficult to support by 1897. (fn. 23) Evening schools
with up to 60 pupils were held from the 1880s
into the 1910s. (fn. 24) March's endowment, worth
£35 in the late 19th century was used from
the 1880s for prizes at the board school or
apprenticeships. (fn. 25)

Attendance at that school, 100-120 until the
1930s, fell to c. 60 after the older pupils were
sent to Bottisham village college in 1937. That
at the church infant school was usually 65-85
over the same period. (fn. 26) From 1955 it was amalgamated with the surviving county junior
school. (fn. 27) Its building later served for a youth
club and library. (fn. 28) In 1969 a new infant school
for up to 70 children was built west of Haggis
Gap. (fn. 29) In 1976 the two schools together had c.
500 pupils, the junior school's numbers having
risen from 86 to 250 since 1957. (fn. 30) In 1982-3
there were only 200 juniors and 90 infants. (fn. 31)
Despite strong local opposition the two schools
were amalgamated on the School Lane site, with
extra buildings, in 1985. (fn. 32) The infant school
buildings became a community centre from
1986. (fn. 33)